FabLab Ghana
7/20/05

Cleared all the way through customs/agent around 7:30pm Tuesday. Heavy traffic out of Accra; arrived Takoradi aproximately 1am. Unloaded vehicles by 2am. Touched all 29 boxes, opened all boxes which have more than one item inside. Found tools for Torchmate assembly.

Rearranged lab layout to accomodate plasma cutter, associated equipment, and computer. In the process, initiated a deep “spring cleaning” of the three cabinets in the lab. Discovered many items carefully wrapped and stored out of sight deep in their depths. Found the power brick for the HP printer/scanner as well as all webcams and speakers and video splitter for projector locked in a cabinet. Did not notice any digital cameras, thumb drives, or memory cards. There didn’t appear to be reason or rhyme to why any thing was in any particular cabinet; carefully reallocated purpose and contents of cabinets. Discarded a phenomenal amount of detritus. Found many many items locked away that are apparently not working and threatened to discard if not made to work tomorrow (includes Dust Buster and a 120V UPS). Existing lab is mostly back up to working status, just rearranged.

Something went horribly wrong at one plug; adaptor block is badly melted, plug contact is almost missing. Unknown cause. Could have been running this way for months. Purchased connectors of the Ghanaian type and students started replacing type-1 US plugs to Ghanaian type. (240 direct devices only). This bypasses need for adaptor sockets.

Machine count is: three (3) Dells from original shipment, two (2) white boxes from MIT? (they say it’s from MIT, perhaps it’s only the flat panel monitors?), and two (2) boxes with no monitors from the mayor’s office. One box works, one box does not, haven’t plugged it in to see where the problem is. Both mayor’s computers were locked in a cabinet. There is also a Dell laptop, kept in closet. The 5 boxes plus monitors all have Knoppix.

DSL doesn’t really make it into the FabLab yet. Line goes into admin building to DSL router, then ethernet to gateway (running Debian), then ethernet to rest of admin building. A single long (really long) ethernet cable runs to computer lab. Unknown if this line supports outgoing connection, I question the length.

Went to Kokompe with welding instructor to buy metal for welding curtain. It is a totally different experience to go with welding instructor (whose alumni work at or have shops at the Kokompe) than with the Mayor’s entourage. He proudly and excitedly led me from shop to shop where his ex-students were doing things from making bolts and nuts (threading and tapping by hand) to blacksmithing to building large metal structures on order. Some students I recognized and they showed me around their shops and what they were working on. We talked about how the equipment they have in the shop differs from what they have in the school and in some cases they thought about making this and that to get closer to the equipment at the school. And they promised to come by the FabLab to visit. In a sense, it was a saddening visit for me to see our TTI boys - so clean and vibrant at TTI in their fresh light orange and brown uniforms - here in the Kokompe, sweating in grimy overalls inside dingy half-standing shacks, barely distinguishable from the grimy machines and parts but for their movements. Only the whiteness of their eyes betray their youth; from here their lives will pass until they are old men in dingy grimy overalls… what has spending a year with the FabLab at their disposal done other than to cause them to covet machines and tools they can’t have?

Tomorrow: assemble plasma stand, assemble/install welding curtain, install “cage” to keep blower and compressor safely outside building, design/create/install blower hosing for exhausting, run ethernet to computer lab link to DSL, investigate parallel ethernet cables to gateway/router, assign static IPs to machines in fablab, meet contact to Takoradi orphanage, arrange CSIR/TTI meeting in Accra on Thursday because Boafo will be back in Accra then.

7/18/2005

Arghhh!

I am still in Accra. Turns out all that painful effort to bypass VAT and whatever we spent a week doing last time was really worth it. The total fees owed at this moment are about $3300, recall that total worth of shipment is about $4000. There’s something really whacky going on too, as the duty appears to be negotiable.

Got to talk briefly with John Boafo who is in Accra with some conference of *TI principals. What he thinks about the lab in his school and how the “community” lab affects trying to run a school, etc.

Back to the joy of customs. Several claims were made about what happened and what’s happening but none hold water and would probably change if I ask again. Something like initially I paid $837 (I thought it was for the Adcom shipment) but they thought it was for the DHL shipment. I point out that the DHL shipment total worth is $500. Agent claims that they” didn’t believe the value so duties were based on what they believed the worth to be. I say we will dispute this as we have receipts. They say, uh, no no, the $837 was calculated based on the value of the whole shipment, Adcom + DHL because they were stapled together. I say, ok, then what’s the deal with the /additional /$3300. They say that’s fees+vat+irs+duties+fees+sackof… calculated on the $4200 value plus shipping costs and shipping insurance on the Adcom shipment. But I thought the $837 was for “everything”. They say, no, uh, only part of it was calculated together, and part wasn’t… and then they say, do you think $2666.67 is too much for the duties? We say, yes! They say, well, how much can you pay, we can make that lower. !!!! I say, duties are /negotiable??

We split up, one pair staying with the shipper and saying, look, we’ll get the money but you have to start getting the boxes out and loaded. The other pair (includes me) runs off to look for money. Both pairs fail.

<sigh>

Arrived ok near midnight. Hot and humid, just like I remember. No one met me at the airport, took taxi to Novotel. Settled at the Novotel. Time for bed.

Weird thing about ticket was this: whoever you talked to booked me on a non-flight. They call it a ghost flight or something, the person typed in manually what the flight details should look like, but didn’t actually select the real flight. Or whatever. Anyway, all flights full for days… likely to get on standby on Wednesday or something. They also don’t fly every day. Blah blah blah. Dude at ticketing worked some kind of magic and got me on this flight, though it was completely full and there were plenty of people on standby. I actually ran next to dude running with my bags to make the airplane.

I am confirmed on a real return flight.

How To Make (Almost) Anything Crash Course
The FabLab at Pretoria, South Africa
7/11-15/2005

Amy Sun [amys at cba dot mit dot edu] 7/16/2005

Class topics included how to use the Linux operating system and various associated programs (openoffice draw, gimp, cam), webpages and the site tool, and operating the Epilog laser cutter, Modela mill, and Camm vinyl cutter. The students also covered basic electronics, schematic creating, conversion to board layout, conversion to toolpath, milling the circuit board, stuffing components, editing assembly code, assembling code, downloading to microprocessor, connecting output on monitor. The topics required 5 days to covered and students did not have time to create integrated final projects.

The class began with 13 students and ended with 9 or 10. Student background was extremely diverse, with one student significantly advanced, one moderately familiar with the special machines, one moderately familiar with computers and engineering concepts, and others with substandard computer or engineering backgrounds. Students came from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Intelligent Transportation Services (ITS) and Advanced Manufacturing Technology Stragety (AMTS), and unemployed youth approximately 20-25 years old from the township Soshanguve. The class was led by MIT grad student Amy Sun and assisted by University of Pretoria Electrical Engineering student Nkosinathi “Paper” Shongwe.

Reflecting on the week, the class began rather disappointingly and was often frustrating to operate, but served to confirm our earlier interests in second and third labs at AIMS (Muizenberg) and BYC (Soshanguve) and to confirm the acceptability of the prospective lab assistant, Paper. In the end, rising stars stood out easily. These students all left the class wild eyed and full of ideas for things they want to make next and promising return visits (all requiring semi-heroic travelling and expense). BYC members expect to return on Monday, Carl is hoping to return while I’m still in South Africa this month.

While there was no more student apathy than other groups in other countries (there is always something of a self-selection and filtering process), there was significantly less available time for those who did want to explore and work. Carl was an example of the usual pattern of initial learning, staying later and later and then not leaving. He stayed until about 9pm, midnight, 4am, then overnight Monday through Thursday nights respectively. Seeing output from peers draws individuals to work more intensely and encourages interaction among the students (the creator beaming and wanting to explain how she did it, the peers wanting to do it themselves and expanding on the idea). Carl was shorted this interaction, though he clearly accomplished much anyway. More time on the machines wasn’t an option for the Soshanguve group because the transport shuttle was absolutely unwilling to arrive at the township after dark and before light of day.

The week also reinforced the inaccessibility of the Pretoria lab for many users. For visitors like Carl (analogous to Kyei in Ghana) who are happy to make a multi-hour journey to the lab, local accomodations and transportation are expensive. While there is convenient rooming available at CSIR, walking distance and a dash across the highway to the Innovation Hub, Karen found that it requires about 3-months lead time. For the Soshanguve group, the lab at Innovation Hub is very inaccessible as taxis have limited
operating hours and will cost about US$5 just for transportation. Recall that the Soshanguve students are unemployed or self-employed. There are also no inexpensive eating options or housing options within walking distance.

320×240 photos are available http://fab.cba.mit.edu/labs/sa/htmaa.html (Photos from days 3-5 to come after I return from Ghana). Higher resolution photos will be available from the same site after I return to Boston in August.

How To Make Crash Course South Africa
Day 4/5 7/14-15/2005

Days 4 and 5 appears to be one long day because it was. With the laser cutter functional, Carl (guy from AIMS) and I stayed up all night fighting over it. And then the sun started coming up and students arrived. Carl wrote several python scripts most notably one that directly converts images (anything that python imaging can open) to power modulated output on the Epilog. The lay explanation of this is that you can now one-step “print” an image in 3D to the laser cutter. Like, wow. There are amazing examples lying about throughout the lab.

The other students silk-screened t-shirts, made and programed hello boards (most didn’t work), and cut a few things on the laser cutter. Most can, if left alone, draw-convert-sendtocutter on their own. There was an obvious split between the students left on fire and desperate to return and learn more and the ones that were amused or interested but might only return if it required extremely effort on their part. Students, including Paper, struggled greatly with critical thinking skills of figuring out what to test and tracing a problem backwards. For example, if they measure output voltage at the voltage regulator and find that it is zero, they will continue to clipping the micro and uisp-ing. If I point out that zero volts at the regulator is as if the micro isn’t plugged in, they will jump to replacing the cap or regulator instead of considering to measure voltage at the incoming serial port and/or serial cable. More than one board had the root failure of inproperly soldered molex connector. Despite repeating the troubleshooting process (power to micro, power from regulator, power into regulator, etc) several times, no student has yet to really catch on.

Again, of note, Khutso and Sizwe are ravenous about returning next week (there’s a third guy from BYC also really into everything, I can’t remember his name at the moment). On Thursday Khutso unavoidably missed the morning shuttle from Soshanguve so he worked out how to taxi here on his own. He reported that it was only about 1 hr 40 minutes with about 15 minutes walking and cost 14 Rands; he and Sizwe and the other BYC officer were excited that this was totally acceptable so we should expect to see them more. They began to ask questions about what they would need to get to have various functionalities in their own shop. Recall this is the group that self-raised funds (by doing physical work not grant writing) to purchase their current two computers for community use.

Power in the lab went on and off often on Thursday and Friday. Fortunately, all machines and computers are plugged into the UPS-ed circuit and we had no problems on that front. The electricity issues appear to be local to the Innovation Hub, not the city wide grid. I cut and soldered together a curtain frame for the plasma cutter in the dark, and while it does hold the curtain up, it would have probably benefited visually with lighting and a ladder.

How To Make Crash Course South Africa
Day 3 7/13/05

The most significant observation today was a 30+ minute discussion among a few Bright Youth members and Paper on how they can take public transportation from their location in Soshanguve to the FabLab. At the moment, they believe it’s 3 taxis and a 20 minute walk along Meiring Naude. With the end of this class looming, they also wanted to make it very clear that they want to return and wanted to know when the lab would be open and how late they could stay and where one could stay overnight. One kept repeating that it was very important for them to return because they had so much to learn and needed time with the computers and machines. I broke one of my own firm rules andloaned a Linux for Dummies book to them, due Friday. The same person also said he would organize purchasing some t-shirts to print if we’d let him learn the process. This person has consistently made statements reflecting a mindset of barrier removal.

Carl is asking the same questions. His emerging plan is to return to AIMS and make files for a few weeks or a month, then fly two hours to Pretoria for a cutting frenzy, then return to AIMS. All on his own dime. He’s now also composing an argument for a small, minimal electronics bench at AIMS, again on his own dime. While there is accomodation available at the CSIR, it is apparently quite full quite often so the outlook seems like he will need to rent a car and hotel of some greater than walking distance away. This is
unlikely to be sustainable for a normal person’s budget.

A reduced number of students returned today, and the lab was bustling with excitement and activity. Bright Youth members, Ally from CSIR, and Carl from AIMS. Morning was basic electronics, circuits, board layout, board milling, soldering. Paper and I reviewed assembly, compiling, programming, troubleshooting, and finding output via serial cable. Students were introduced to the tutorials and tools available on fab and OCW, resulting in some discussing on the concepts of making learning accessible, widespread, and freely available. Two of the Bright Youth group asked about how they could make OCW and sites like to available to their communities.

Again an impressively productive day from Carl. With the ability to crease and cut on the camm in one file, he made a regular dodecahedron with tabs and slots that is assembled without the use of adhesives. He also made a slightly less successful isohedron. He spent much time playing with FETs, LEDs, and motors, as we would like to make a small non-precise turtle to take direction from his pyturtle. He scanned in several wildlife patterns and screen printed onto a T-shirt and a canvas bag.

I found a plumbing store and bought materials to make plasma curtain stand. I also purchased 3 and 5 mm plywood in hopes the laser cutter will return to life soon. I have yet to find sheets of steel.

How to Make Crash Course in ZA
Day 2  7/12/05

CSIR guy didn’t return. Soshanguve brought 10 (including Godfrey) and they showed up right on time. Carl and Riaan here.

Demonstrated sdraw -> cam -> to_epi and similar flow paths and cut a few things in cardboard. Just as the students were about to do it themselves, the laser cutter x-axis stopped working. The students struggled greatly with the concept of input/output and file formats and programs and directories and files. Students were asked to make at least one thing on either epi or camm before lunch, but only Godfrey got close to product. Students were told they could make a t-shirt print if they figured out enough by early afternoon. This was an exciting prospect when I announced it, but I think they might have forgotten
and defocused.

Paper demonstrated site and website making. All students made webpages via site; this was a very exciting concept to get to make their own pages. Paper did great. Karen remarked she could see some difference in the way he spoke and carried himself even from a distance (we ate at a separate table during lunch).

A few students are significantly better than others in learning technical concepts. I discovered only at the end of today that all the promising students are Bright Youth Group members. It was among these student who were the last to leave the lab for lunch and ran back the lab right after eating. Sizwe in particular currently stands out in having caught up for being mostly gone yesterday. The exception is Thapelo who I mentioned yesterday who is still very keen to learn, but not learning terribly fast. He could easily become a Mel; he is from MYDF.

Today’s format was high speed babble and clicking from Amy for 40-50 minutes followed by time left to themselves and Paper. Then again some babble and clicking from Paper and time to themselves. Then at the very end, some high speed clicking from Amy. This is a comfortable format but with questionable success because extremely little work product can be shown for the efforts of an 8 hour day in the lab. On the other hand, as I roamed around occasionally (setting up the plasma cutter & troubleshooting laser cutter), I never once saw email or google or general net surfing.

The students seem genuinely desperate for rote “learning” and somewhat terrified and lost without step by step written instructions. Their note taking skills are positively horrendous; I opened a blank page and typed onto the screen the steps and descriptions as I ran through them, strongly reminding students that they should be taking down notes. In theory, if a student were to simply copy down word for word what I wrote (and left on the screen) they would be quite well off. But the notebooks I peeked at would just barely
have the first few words of every few lines and usually not written left-to-right/up-to-down. Just as well, students rarely consider consulting their notes when they run into a problem. Much of the notetaking seemed more like pretending for my behalf.

Soshanguve Students:

• Mabuti Mosia (M) BBI Services
• Elias Pietersen (M) BBI Services
• Sibongile Selwane (F) MYDF
• Itumeleng Masilena (F) BYC (Bright Youth Council)
• Thapelo Maphanga (M) MYDF
• Khutso Maruma (F) BYC
• Sizwe Ktwbeka (M) BYC
• Ivy Mtileni (F) BYC
• Hester Marema (F) BYC
• Godfrey Phokojwe (M) TNC

Carl (AIMS) had a tremendously productive day. Wrote a python puzzle making script that randomly makes puzzle pieces and writes as svg (see attached pic). Managed to get one puzzle cut all-by-self before laser cutter went down. Wrote a python Logo interpreter which outputs graphically and svg. Read lots about dc motors and controls, is going to tackle making some moving things tomorrow and has some interest in linear permanent magnet motors. Made a 3D regular dodecahedron on the camm. He is right this moment fascinated by the label maker.

Riaan re-networked, putting all machines and computers on internal 192.168.2.* network. Hopefully this will allow lab to function if Innovation Hub DNS/switches/whatever go down. So far, so good.

Tomorrow… electronics, circuits, boards, programming.

How to Make (Almost) Anything

ZA Crash Course
Day 1  7/11/2005

Incredibly slow start. All students struggling greatly with basic computer skills. Classic battle of students unwilling to ask questions when they don’t understand. All seem to understand English just fine. From AIMS - Carl, the same who came to the opening. Should be bored stiff, but we talked tonight about an alternative crash course for him that starts the day in the same topics as the rest of the students then diverges to explore the topic further and is tailored to the areas in which he is less familiar.

From CSIR - Ally, apparently an intern. I think he’s still in school, otherwise this is some kind of pre-hire practical. From the ITS (intelligent transportation systems) group. From Soshanguve - Godfrey plus two boys (Mabuti and Thapelo) and four girls  Sibongile, Itu, Ivy, Hester). All girls unemployed, looking to pass time.  Technically weaker on arrival with no idea of what they want to make or really ever dreampt of making things. Still, they are somehow a little more ahead in comprehension leaps. An additional two boys came in the morning but left early in the day and did not return, and two boys were left behind in Soshanguve because they couldn’t be found when transportation showed up.

At lunch I led a discussion about the policies that might make sense for SA fablabs. How to balance keeping the lab doors wide open for all people while keeping machines and equipment safe and in working order? Thapelo really grasped this and it somewhat seems like he’s thought about it before. Will find out tomorrow which group he is part of, I don’t think it was Bright Youth.

Paper seems to be doing great. He circled around the groups struggling with the computers dispensing help, advise, and encouragement. Students arrived just after 9am and left just before 4pm. A small number of students came back into the lab shortly after finishing lunch but there were a large number of dawdlers that didn’t get back into the lab until about 2:15pm. The small number which returned early learned how to use the scanner.

Starting Tuesday, class will be from 8am to 5pm. Driver of transportation to/from Soshanguve arrived early, and I went out to see if it was possible to bring the students in early and return them home later. (After discussing with Karen and students). Driver said that he is European and will not go in the township after dark and does not want to drive into the township to get students closer to their homes even in the day time. The transportation only takes the students to the very edge of the township and most students still have some distance to cover afterwards.

Two sets of visitors today, a large gaggle of suits (I somehow completely missed who they were and who brought them through) and a guy who attended Neil’s World Bank talk and has Finnish collaboration interests.

How to Make (Almost) Anything

5 Day Crash Course  7/11-15/2005

Pretoria Innovation Hub, South Africa

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I visited Padre Jose Lain in the central mountains of Panama. We met P. Lain after hearing about his epic bridge building efforts and general life commitment to “elevate the human condition”. Indeed, his steel suspension bridges and residencia for students are something to be marveled at. P. Lain and his brothers serve a gigantic area reserved for the indigenous Panamanians, called a comarque, which stretches nearly from the Pacific to the Atlantic oceans. Much of the comarque is reached after a day or more of walking up and down steep mountain trails and crossing dangerous rivers. Panama is the thin strip of land between North and South America where geologic plates have pushed the land into fold after fold after fold of mountains and valleys. The indigenous Panamanians have lived a life of subsidence farming for many centuries in this region and are not in a hurry to have contact with the rest of the country, or world. The role of precision fabrication technology is very unclear here. Here people wonder what they will eat from day to day, what they will wear from each day to the next. The type and extent of need in these mountains is so great that a fablab would be a huge burden while not providing near term useful products or skills. In the short time of my visit during the dry season, an unexpected rainstorm washed away a village and its crops, and heavily flooded a valley cutting off access to these people.

Indigenous Panamanians live in the central region of Panama, an area marked by many mountains and deep valleys. Locally referred to as “Indians”, they have lived for centuries off the dry steep land primarily through subsidence farming. In more recent times, the high mountain lands and valleys have been governmentally designated, comarques, and Indians continue to live in a traditional manner. Lack of paying work and crop shortages often drive one or more of the older children in a family to seek work in Panama City, usually as unskilled and underpaid labor, a situation made more difficult by their poor Spanish. These family members are the lifeline for the Indians.

This trip highlighted a growing global disaster - the need for people to leave their families and ancestral way of life to flock to overcrowded cities for work.  Can technology bring work to people where they live?